I'm Getting Married, But the Groom is Not You

I was lying on that hospital bed, the sterile smell of the room making me dizzy. The decision felt like it was already made. My mind was screaming at me to just end it—to go through with the abortion. Twin babies, all of this chaos... What was the point of keeping them?

But even as I thought that, I couldn’t shake the feeling in my chest. I hadn’t even told anyone I was pregnant yet. No one knew. But these little lives inside me—they were mine. They were a part of me.

As the nurse prepped me for the procedure, I thought of the twins. What if I could keep them? What if I could make it work? I wasn’t a killer. Not like this.

I couldn’t do it.

Before I even realized it, I ripped the IV out of my arm, the sharp sting grounding me. I jumped off the bed, adrenaline crashing through me as I sprinted through the hallway, barefoot and frantic. Nurses shouted after me, but I didn’t look back.

I just ran.

Out the lobby. Down the stairs. Through the double doors—into the dim parking garage.

That’s when I saw her.

She was standing near her car, arms crossed, her stomach barely visible beneath a designer coat. Her face lit with venom the moment she saw me.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she spat. “Are you stalking me?”

I froze. “What are you doing here?”

She cocked her head. “Doctor’s appointment. Eight-week checkup. You know, for my baby.”

My breath caught in my throat. “You’re... You're pregnant?”

She smiled. “Guess who the father is.”

My legs were shaking. “You planned this.”

“You ruined my life!” she hissed, walking closer. “You took my family. My place. My future. Now I’m just taking back what was mine.”

I tried to move past her, but she stepped aside and pulled open her car door. “Go ahead. Run. That’s all you’re good at.”

I kept walking, trying to ignore the burn behind my eyes. But then—

BAM!

The engine roared. I turned just in time to see the headlights blinding me. Metal slammed into my body. The impact threw me like a rag doll. I hit the pavement hard—head first. Pain exploded through my back and stomach. My vision spun. My ears rang.

Blood. Warm. So much of it. Spreading beneath me like ink on paper. I couldn't move. My hands instinctively flew to my stomach.

My babies.

Lila stepped out of her car, heels clicking against concrete, walking toward me like she was stepping onto a runway. She crouched beside me, pulled off her sunglasses slowly, then spit—right on my face.

“Look at you. Pathetic. Bleeding like a stuck pig.”

I tried to speak, to beg—but she wasn’t listening.

She leaned closer, her perfume choking me, her voice like poison. “You thought you were special, didn’t you? That just because you share a little DNA, the world was gonna kneel for you? Bitch, you’re nothing but a stolen mistake.”

Tears burned down my cheeks as my vision blurred.

“Oh, don’t cry now,” she cooed cruelly. “You should’ve done that before opening your legs to Jake. But then again… he said you were boring as hell. Like dead fish. No wonder he always came crawling back to me.”

She laughed—ugly, loud, unhinged.

“God, the way he talked about you? ‘She’s like tasteless water,’” she mimicked in a mocking voice. “‘Lila, you make me feel alive. She just makes me feel… obligated.’”

I whimpered, my body shaking. “Please…”

“Please?” she mocked, grinning wide. “That’s what you said when he left your apartment after faking an ‘all-nighter.’ He was in my bed, you idiot. He never loved you.”

I gasped, clutching my side. Blood soaked through my clothes. And then her phone rang.

She answered it with a sickeningly sweet voice. “Hey baby.”

Jake’s voice lit up the speaker. “Hey, gorgeous. You at the clinic yet?”

Lila turned away from me like I didn’t exist. “Just parked. Our little peanut's doing somersaults, I swear.”

Jake laughed. “God, I can’t wait to meet him. I’ve never wanted to be a dad this bad.”

I sobbed, a broken sound.

Lila glanced down, eyes cold. “You hear that?” she whispered. “That’s the sound of someone actually wanted.”

Jake continued, clueless. “You think it’s a boy?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she purred. “As long as it’s ours.”

“You’re gonna be such a hot mom,” he chuckled. “I’ll be there in ten. I miss you already.”

She hung up, then looked down at me again.

“I told you I’d take everything from you,” she whispered. “And now, I have.”

She pulled her sunglasses back on, stepped over my body like garbage, and walked inside.

And I was left there—on the cold floor, blood pooling, my babies slipping away with every passing second.

But someone was coming.

A voice I hadn’t heard in years.

“Clarisse! Stay with me,” he said, as strong arms lifted me off the ground. “Don’t close your eyes. I’ve got you.”

And just before I blacked out, I saw his face—my first love. The only boy who ever looked at me like I mattered.

But it was too late.